System for dynamic bandwidth adjustment and trading among peers

ABSTRACT

A system is disclosed, that provides dynamic bandwidth sharing among a plurality of client nodes, which share network link resources in a communication network. Upon receipt of a bandwidth adjustment request from a requesting client node, the system adjusts bandwidth when network link capacity meets the bandwidth adjustment request, or when total amount of bandwidth offered to trade by any peers of the requesting client node meets the bandwidth adjustment request.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to network communications, andmore particularly, to a versatile system for dynamic bandwidthadjustment and trading among client nodes sharing network linkresources.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON)/Generalized Multi-protocolLabel Switching (GMPLS) protocols are commonly used to set up point topoint paths, or to dynamically adjust (increase/decrease) bandwidth ofpoint to point paths in a Connection-Oriented Packet Service (COPS)environment. However, in a Connectionless Packet Service (CLPS)application, it is not required that a connection be established betweena sender and receiver, and there is lack of mechanism in conventionalsystems that allows for dynamic bandwidth adjustment among client nodes.

In a conventional aggregation network (100) with a shared link,illustrated in FIG. 1, each client is connected to network (100) via anaccess port, such as port (131), (132), (133), (134), (135) and (136).All access port traffic is aggregated to a network node (104) vianetwork nodes (112), (114), (116), (118) and (120), and then routed tocore node/switch (102) via network node (104). In this topology, allaccess ports (131)-(136) share bandwidth on trunk (106) to corenode/switch (102).

A conventional practice for network bandwidth control involves limitingingress rate at each access port to be under certain CommittedInformation Rate (CIR), such as CIR1-CIR6 associated with each accessport illustrated in FIG. 1. However, there are instances where someports may need higher bandwidth only for some period of time. Underconventional practices, those ports may have to acquire the maximumbandwidth they may possibly utilize, even though they may actually onlyneed high bandwidth within a small time window. In these instances,conventional practices lack flexibility and lower efficiency inbandwidth utilization.

Therefore, there is a need to provide a dynamic bandwidth sharingcapability among clients that share network link resources, and toimprove bandwidth sharing flexibility and efficiency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention discloses a system, comprising various constructsand methods, for dynamic bandwidth adjustment or trading among clientsports that share network link resources in a communication network. Uponreceipt of a bandwidth adjustment request from a client, the presentsystem determines request acceptability using network link capacity. Ifnetwork link capacity meets the bandwidth adjustment request, thepresent system adjusts Committed Information Rate (CIR) of therequesting client. If network link capacity does not meet the bandwidthadjustment request, the present system attempts to acquire unusedbandwidth from any other client ports to meet the bandwidth request ofthe requesting client, and adjusts CIR of the requesting client and anyother client ports offering bandwidth for trade.

The present invention provides dynamic bandwidth sharing capabilitiesamong clients that share network link resources, and improves bandwidthsharing flexibility and efficiency.

The present invention may provide dynamic bandwidth sharing capabilitiesthrough exchange of signaling messages in a control plane, or through abandwidth manager in a management plane. The bandwidth trading of thepresent invention may be performed in either centralized or distributedfashion.

The following description and drawings set forth in detail a number ofillustrative embodiments of the invention. These embodiments areindicative of but a few of the various ways in which the presentinvention may be utilized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and itsadvantages, reference is now made to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencenumerals represent like parts:

FIG. 1 depicts an aggregation network with a shard link;

FIG. 2 depicts a flow chart illustrating operation of dynamic bandwidthadjustment and trading through exchange of signaling messages accordingto the present invention; and

FIG. 3 depicts signaling sequences for dynamic bandwidth trading throughexchange of signaling messages according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following discussion is presented to enable a person skilled in theart to make and use the invention. The general principles describedherein may be applied to embodiments and applications other than thosedetailed below without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent invention as defined herein. The present invention is notintended to be limited solely to the embodiments shown, but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and featuresdisclosed herein.

The present invention discloses a system for dynamic bandwidthadjustment or trading among client nodes sharing network link resources.The present invention provides different mechanisms to achieve dynamicbandwidth adjustment or trading. For example, the dynamic bandwidthadjustment or trading may be performed in a control plane throughexchanging signaling messages, or it may be performed in a managementplane through bandwidth management.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a flowchart (200) illustrates operation ofdynamic bandwidth adjustment and trading, among a group of client nodessharing network link resources, through exchange of signaling messagesin accordance with the present invention.

Bandwidth adjustment may begin from step (222), when a client (221)requests bandwidth increase from a network node (211). Network node(211) may be any node in a network that has knowledge of clients sharingthe network link resources. Upon receipt of bandwidth increase requestfrom client (221) in step (212), network node (211) determines, in step(213), whether such request may be accepted or not, using network linkcapacity information. If network link capacity is greater than, or equalto, total updated aggregate CIR bandwidth, then the request is acceptedin step (214), and network node (211) may proceed in step (215) bynotifying the port of client (221) with an updated CIR level. The totalupdated aggregate CIR bandwidth is the total amount of CIR of all clientports that share the network link capacity, with the requesting clientport's CIR adjusted as requested. The transaction may be completed whenthe port of client (221) confirms with the update.

If network link capacity is less than total updated aggregate CIRbandwidth, network node (211) may send a multicast message in step (216)to each of the peers (i.e., all the other ports that share network linkcapacity with client (221)), inquiring if any of the peers may tradeunused bandwidth in response to the request from client (221) foradditional bandwidth. Each port may send a reply message back to networknode (211) with an amount of bandwidth offered to trade. Upon receipt ofreply messages from all participating peers, network node (211)determines whether the bandwidth increase request may be honored in step(217). If the bandwidth increase request is honored, in step (218),network node (211) informs each participating peer about the bandwidthincrease results. Network node (211) also sends a notification messagewith adjusted CIRs to all trading peers that offer traded bandwidth instep (218). Once the reservation is confirmed, both requesting client(221) and trading peers update their CIRs. If the total amount ofbandwidth offer to trade doesn't meet the bandwidth increase request,network node (211) informs the result to requesting client (221) in step(219).

Reference is now made to FIG. 3, which depicts a signaling sequencediagram (300) for an embodiment where bandwidth adjustment and tradingare necessary due to limited shared link capacity. A requester (302)sends a bandwidth request message to a network node (304) in step (331),requesting bandwidth increase. Network node (304) multicasts thebandwidth request to peer1 (312), peer2 (314), peer3 (316), and peerN(318), by sending a bandwidth request multicast message in step (333),inquiring whether any peer may trade unused bandwidth to requester(302). Each of the peers (i.e., peer (312), (314), (316) and (318))responds to the inquiry of network node (304) with an amount ofbandwidth each peer may give—by sending a reply message to network node(304) in steps (335 a), (335 b), (335 c) and (335 d), respectively. Uponreceiving reply messages sent in step (335), if network node (304)determines that the bandwidth increase request from requester (302) maybe met by the total amount of bandwidth offered by peers (312), (314),(316) and (318), then network node (304) sends a bandwidth confirmationmessage in step (341) to requester (302), informing requester (302) thatthe bandwidth request is honored. Network node (304) also sendsbandwidth adjustment confirmation messages to each peer for CIRadjustment in step (343 a), (343 b), (343 c) and (343 d), respectively.Requester (302) and peers (312), (314), (316) and (318) respond networknode (304) by sending confirmation acknowledgement messages to networknode (304) in step (347 a), (347 b), (347 c) and (347 d), completingbandwidth adjustment.

With the exchange of signaling messages described above, a client'srequest for bandwidth adjustment is met, and bandwidth adjustment isdynamically achieved. This may be performed via a control plane throughexchange of signaling messages.

Other embodiments achieve dynamic bandwidth adjustment via a managementplane through a bandwidth manager. In such instances, instead of anetwork node, with which client ports exchange messages, a bandwidthmanager may assume the role of the network node to manage dynamicbandwidth adjustment. A bandwidth manager may identify a bandwidth needfrom a client, determine whether the need may be met, and adjust and/ortrade bandwidth among peers of the client. An interface between clientports and the bandwidth manager may be a network management interfacelike Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

The dynamic bandwidth adjustment and trading illustrated above iscentralized. That is, a network node sends a bandwidth request massageto each of participating clients, and collects bandwidth informationfrom the clients. Alternative embodiments adjust bandwidth dynamicallyin a distributed fashion. These alternative embodiments allow eachclient to come up with its own bandwidth profile information based onits historical link traffic utilization. A bandwidth profile may be alist of bandwidth utilization of a historical link in each period oftime, and associated “residual” bandwidth a client is willing to “giveaway” to peers upon request. This bandwidth profile may be created in adistributed fashion by each client node.

Once this information is made available to a network node, the networknode may not have to send a bandwidth request multi-cast message to eachclient node as it already has the information. Therefore, upon abandwidth request from a client, the network node may determine new CIRsfor participating clients using the bandwidth profile, and sendbandwidth adjustment messages to all clients.

The present invention may be applied in, but not limited to,Connectionless Packet Service (CLPS) applications, and multi-point tomulti-point traffic type. The dynamic bandwidth trading may be includedin a network service provider as a service type.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable those skilled in the art to make or use the present invention.Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art and generic principles defined herein may beapplied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scopeof the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to belimited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widestscope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosedherein.

1. A method of dynamic bandwidth sharing among a plurality of clientnodes, that share network link resources in a communication network,comprising the steps of: providing a traffic management node; receivinga bandwidth adjustment request from at least one requesting client nodewith the traffic management node; determining bandwidth adjustmentrequest acceptability with the traffic management node; and adjustingbandwidth with the traffic management node.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the step of determining bandwidth adjustment requestacceptability utilizes network link capacity information.
 3. The methodof claim 2, wherein if network link capacity is greater than, or equalto, total updated aggregate Committed Information Rate (CIR) bandwidthfor the plurality of client nodes that share network link capacity, thenthe bandwidth adjustment request is accepted, and CIR of the requestingclient node is adjusted.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofdetermining bandwidth request acceptability utilizes information ofbandwidth offered by at least one peer of the requesting client node. 5.The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of: inquiring, withat least one peer of the requesting client node, for trading unusedbandwidth to the requesting client node; and determining if total amountof bandwidth offered to trade by the at least one peer meets thebandwidth adjustment request.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the stepof adjusting bandwidth comprises adjusting CIR of the requesting clientnode.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of adjusting bandwidthcomprises adjusting CIR of the requesting client node, and CIR of the atleast one peer of the requesting client node.
 8. The method claim 1,wherein the traffic management node is a network node adapted to managedynamic bandwidth sharing.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the trafficmanagement node is a bandwidth manager adapted to manage dynamicbandwidth sharing.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamic bandwidthsharing comprises exchange of signaling messages.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein dynamic bandwidth sharing comprises bandwidthmanagement.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication networkcomprises connectionless packet services.
 13. The method of claim 1,wherein the communication network provides multi-point to multi-pointtraffic.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein bandwidth requestacceptability is determined using bandwidth profile informationassociated with each of the plurality of client nodes.
 15. The method ofclaim 14, wherein bandwidth profile information comprises bandwidthutilization for each period of time, and bandwidth offered by each ofthe plurality of client nodes upon request.
 16. A system for providingdynamic bandwidth sharing in a communication network, comprising: aplurality of client nodes, sharing network link resources, wherein atleast one client node requests bandwidth adjustment; and a trafficmanagement node, for receiving the bandwidth adjustment request from therequesting client node, for determining bandwidth adjustment requestacceptability, and for adjusting bandwidth.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein the traffic management node determines bandwidth requestacceptability utilizing network link capacity information.
 18. Thesystem of claim 17, wherein the traffic management node determines that,if network link capacity is greater than, or equal to, total updatedaggregate CIR bandwidth for the plurality of client nodes that sharenetwork link capacity, then the bandwidth adjustment request isaccepted, and CIR of the requesting client node is adjusted.
 19. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the traffic management node determinesbandwidth request acceptability utilizing information of bandwidthoffered by at least one peer of the requesting client node.
 20. Thesystem of claim 19, wherein the traffic management node: inquires withat least one peer of the requesting client node, for trading unusedbandwidth to the requesting client node; and determines if total amountof bandwidth offered to trade by the at least one peer meets thebandwidth adjustment request.
 21. The system of claim 16, wherein thetraffic management node adjusts bandwidth by adjusting CIR of therequesting client node.
 22. The system of claim 16, wherein the trafficmanagement node adjusts bandwidth by adjusting CIR of the requestingclient node, and CIR of the at least one peer of the requesting clientnode.
 23. The system claim 16, wherein the traffic management nodecomprises a network node.
 24. The system of claim 16, wherein thetraffic management node comprises a bandwidth manager.
 25. The system ofclaim 16, wherein dynamic bandwidth sharing comprises exchange ofsignaling messages.
 26. The system of claim 16, wherein dynamicbandwidth sharing comprises bandwidth management.
 27. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the communication network comprises connectionlesspacket services.
 28. The system of claim 16, wherein the communicationnetwork provides multi-point to multi-point traffic.
 29. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the traffic management node determines bandwidthrequest acceptability utilizing bandwidth profile information associatedwith each of the plurality of client nodes.
 30. The system of claim 29,wherein the bandwidth profile information comprises bandwidthutilization for each period of time, and bandwidth offered to give byeach of the plurality of client nodes upon request.
 31. A system forproviding dynamic bandwidth sharing in a communication network,comprising: a plurality of client nodes, sharing network link resources,wherein at least one client node requests bandwidth adjustment; anetwork node, for receiving a bandwidth adjustment request from therequesting client node, for determining bandwidth adjustment requestacceptability, and for adjusting bandwidth; wherein if network linkcapacity is greater than, or equal to, total updated aggregate CIRbandwidth for all nodes that share network link capacity, then thenetwork node accepts the bandwidth adjustment request, and adjusts CIRof the requesting client node; wherein if network link capacity is lessthan total updated aggregate CIR bandwidth, then the network nodeinquires with at least one peer of the requesting client node, fortrading unused bandwidth to the requesting client node; and wherein thenetwork node adjusts CIR of the requesting client node, and CIR of theat least one peer of the requesting client node, if total amount ofbandwidth offered to trade by at least one peer meets the bandwidthadjustment request.